Do boomerangs really come back? You can find out at the United States Boomerang Association’s ninth annual Toss Across America boomerang demonstration and teaching event May 16 at Tuttle Park.The event, which will be held from 1 p.m. – 5 p.m., will be one of hundreds of demonstrations being held across the country on National Toss Across America day. The demonstration will preview some of the events held at national and international competitions, USBA member and event organizer Bob Lackey said.Lackey, a retired electrical engineering professor from Ohio State, said that people who attend the demonstration will witness the boomerang throwing technics of experienced USBA members. Competitive throwing includes events in accuracy, fast catching, distance, trick throwing and doubling throwing.Attendees will also be given a chance to get lessons and try their hand at throwing the v-shaped projectiles.Lackey, 66, has been throwing boomerangs for quite some time. “I’ve been throwing for 20 years, but I didn’t even know that there was a national organization until five years ago,” Lackey said. “Until then I was just throwing in oblivion.”Lackey, along with fellow organizers, make many of their own boomerangs. Different types of boomerangs are made for different types of throwing purposes, but they all have unique qualities, Lackey said. “You could make two boomerangs with same dimensions and weight and they would still fly different paths,” he said.Another demonstration will be given at Mingo Park, in Delaware, Ohio, by 10-time U.S. champion Chet Snouffer. Snouffer has thrown a boomerang that stayed airborne for 17 minutes ‹ and he still caught it. “It caught a thermal and circled like a buzzard in the air and then it came back and he caught it,” Lackey said.Many of the region’s top competitors will be giving demonstrations at the Snouffer event in Delaware.The sport is growing nationally and internationally. The USBA is currently attempting to get boomerang throwing approved as a demonstration in the 2000 Summer Olympics.